How do I change tools?

[mr penguin]

I'm a newbie and have a Dyna cnc router with zip for documents. I've been watching the Artsoft videos and they are amazing. I have run a few test files and stuff seems to be working ok. A couple of questions though...the Mach 3 program that has my machine profile set up is not the same one in the tutorials. I do not have a tool selection box. I found the toolbox table and wrote in diameters and lengths of router bits but for the life of me cannot find a way to select that tool. It always says Tool 0 up in the corner of my black box. I do have on the same computer Mach 3 Mill. This one looks like the tutorials but has not been configured at all. Both programs are version 1.83.005 Any tips? Thanks in advance

[ger21]

In your g-code, M6 T1 will change it to tool 1. If you want to use Length Offsets, then use G43. See thw manual on how to use it.

That's a pretty old version of Mach3, and I'm not sure if the following still holds true for your version. If you want to change tools in a program, you call M6 Tx. In Mach's cofiguration screen (Config>General Config), you can set a few different options for what Mach3 will do when it sees an M6.

[mr penguin]

So should I ditch this version and get the latest?

[ger21]

Unless you're having problems, or need a feature that only a newer version has, I'd say no.